Mechanical Ventilation

The new mechanical ventilation unit is now installed and running. It sucks dirty interior air from the upstairs bathroom and kitchen while bringing in fresh outside air and dumping it into the existing ventilation system. There's a heat and moisture exchanger so that incoming air is conditioned and we are not losing heat.

Blue Skin done

Today was more demo including taking down all the gutters. The majority of the white siding (installed when we remodeled 6 years ago) was removed. What was left is small trim-like pieces.

The cellulose installer came back to finish up a couple spots he missed yesterday on the front of the house. Under the front (east) windows, upon drilling a hole for the cellulose, fiberglass insulation was found...installed backwards; the paper side facing outwards. We figure the previous crew thought they were doing a good thing but by installing it backwards it may have contributed to moisture problems.

They also found drywall, which is odd as our walls are plaster on the inside. Frank, the lead construction guy, said that our porch was probably inclosed in the 60's and that the drywall was used in place of lathe with the plaster going over it to match the rest of the interior.

We are water tight with one exception; above the dining room bay windows. By removing the gutters the rotted facia was exposed and they were not able to put blueskin over.

Backwards fiberglass is gone. Preparing for cellulose. 

Tacking up mesh that hold in the cellulose. Used when there is no wall. 

Former window to basement. Covered when previous owners installed a bathroom. Was only plywood between the outside and inside. The silver vent is the inline water heater exhaust. 

Back of house. Most all the white panel is gone. 

Blue south side. 

Front all blue. 

Big Blue Day

Another day of big progress. 95% done with the blow in cellulose and "blueskin" vapor wrap.
In the attic I added some wood blocking to secure the window frames to the house frame. The construction crew didn't want to remove the old exterior trim since that was what was holding the windows in place.

Under the front windows. Hollow wall cavity above the enclosed storage area in the basement; which had a frost wall and was spray foamed during the big remodel. 

Showing the newly filled cavity between the dining room windows. For all of them, they pulled out the fiberglass and used foam board and spray foam to insulate. 

Fully rebuilt corner. Old wood pulled out, new beams added and the cavity insulated with foam. Made an actual corner unlike what was there. 

Repaired and insulated corner and header above windows. 

The cavity below the front windows is now filled with cellulose. Rather than wait for Dave to show up with foam we had them use a mesh to hold in the cellulose. 

Blue house! The entire old section is now wrapped in Blueskin vapor barrier. Getting lots of looks from passersby. 

Front of blue house. Under the windows and to the left still need insulating. 

Big day today. More siding was removed, cellulose was installed, moisture barrier installed, and more duct work for the mechanical ventilation. The north wall is now almost ready for the foam board insulation, it's also bright blue!

Ug, they removed the entire decorative column. Turns out there is no wall cavity! Just the backside of the interior plaster wall; meaning the cold air had been moving though the column like a chimney and contributing to the mold problem. 

View of the back of the house (west elevation)

East elevation after the white panels were stripped off. The first floor on this side were not insulated today as there is some weird old insulation in the wall cavity that prevents pumping in cellulose. We will remove the exterior boards and the old junk inside to allow proper insulating.  

The mighty truck of cellulose. 

Pumping in cellulose. It is so fine that some of the particulates find their way around cracks in the plaster or the power outlets. Nothing to bad but you notice the dust. 

Replacing fiberglass insulation with foam board and spray foam. 

The guys used my spray gun and foam to keep things moving along. 

Installing the blueskin moisture barrier. It's self adhering, unlike tyvek which requires tacks to hold up. Every tack then becomes a hole in the barrier. 

North side of house. All blue. 

Today was day one of siding removal. A crew of 4 removed nearly all the old cedar. Unfortunately the dumpster did not arrive so they piled it all up against the south side of the house. They did a nice job with clean up and had a plastic sheet under everything to catch all the bits that fell down.

On the inside, Dan the HVAC guy got the intake and exhaust ducts in for the  mechanical ventilation system installed. The bathroom and kitchen returns are partially installed. The kitchen return will have to be custom built as the wall cavity is too narrow, only 2" wide.

In the basement I spray foamed the last window set and sealed the gap between the basement and first floor in preparation for the cellulose being blown in.

Abstract art?  No, location of kitchen air return. Turns out the 2x4s were turned on their side to make slightly larger rooms.  

Bathroom air return fully installed to basement.  

View from Aaron's place at the end of the day. All the siding is under the black plastic. 

Makes me happy to see the foam insulations I installed this past year. 

Porch soffits. You can see into the attic. 

Front elevation. 

A wee bit of damage. There's a bird nest as well. Glad it is all getting replaced. 

From the morning as work was just getting underway. Happy to report that they were careful to not crush all my native plants. 

North side. 

Dinning room bay windows. 

Blocking and insulation from when we replaced the windows some 10-years ago. I will remove the white stuff and replace with foam. 

This cloth was used to insulate around a basement window frame. I suppose it is better than then nothing that was in the rest of the walls!  

Our neighbor Jerry is salvaging some of the cedar siding for his house.  He said it's been a year and he's been unable to find cedar to match his place. Since this part of the porch was enclosed after the house was built they actually put a bit of insulation under the cedar - it's about 1/4" thick.

The new mechanical ventilation system air intake will go through this part of the basement. Which is fine since I'd planned to remove the ceiling and redo. 

As more of the paper fell or blew off you can now see the original look. Most of the cedar is in good shape with only one or two coats of paint. We wonder what colour the now missing trim piece between the two sizes of cedar was. 

Shingles Removed

They finished the removal of the old shingles today, despite the bad weather and having said yesterday that it would take 3-days. The good news is that my plants did not get trampled too badly. 

Some surprising finds in places were the paper has fallen away....

On front porch:  wainscoting along half of the wall.
It did not continue past the front door, Just this one portion. 

The original kitchen window was much wider at one time. 

Big surprise! Decorative shingles in the peak area.
The back of the house is just plain cedar siding. 

Also on the north side. The original bathroom window was
much taller and a bit more narrow. 

Cedar Exposed

On the first day of removal the crew finished the south face of the house.
The kraft paper and lots of nails remain over the original cedar. In places you can see it 

You can see the original sizing scheme of wider boards starting at the 1st floor window sill and thinner exposure boards above. A trim board separating the two was removed before being covered by paper. 

Exterior Remodel Has Begun!

Thanks to damage done to the old nasty siding and a subsequent insurance payout we've embarked on long planned for "someday" exterior renovations. 

First Up: Removing the nasty old cement fiberboard siding from the 3 sides of the house that it remains. North, south, front porch, and upper east face should be done in two days. 

North side of house (current)

Front (east)

South face. Damage is visible.

SE corner. 

Plastic sheeting up to reduce dust from removal of cement board.